'Standard' a disturbing look at Abu Ghraib scandal

I don't think Errol Morris' "Standard Operation Procedure" is a great documentary, or that it's even as good as Morris' epic Vietnam interview with Robert McNamara "The Fog of War."

But it's good as a crucial document of the Iraq conflict, and a provocative analysis of the meaning and power of images.

Morris' documentary about Abu Ghraib prison replays and analyzes one of the most publicly damaging episodes of the Iraq War.

Remember those photographs of a smiling young woman soldier walking a leashed Iraqi prisoner like a dog? Or the human pyramid of stripped Iraqis, with a smiling young lady on top?

"Standard Operation Procedure" shows us the photos, and explains how they were made -- and also what they don't show.

We learn the reasons why a group of young soldiers started humiliating Iraqi prisoners, stripping them and turning them into butts of crude, sadistic humor. We learn worse, too.

Like a lot of Morris' previous work, including the bizarre pet cemetery documentary "Gates of Heaven" and the true crime murder investigation "The Thin Blue Line," this one's a deadpan look at wacko behavior, a story that quietly reveals something strange and disturbing about American society and culture.

The standard operating procedure is what one investigator says was violated at Abu Ghraib: the proper method for extracting information from supposedly dangerous P.O.W.s (and others) without toppling over the line into torture and scandal.

Or, in this case, torture, scandal and outrageous stupidity. One of the more curious things about this documentary, and one that has definitely bothered some of its critics, is Morris' sympathy for his subjects. He doesn't spare them any scrutiny.

Yet it's clear that he sees his five soldier-witnesses mostly as lower-level victims and scapegoats who took the fall, while the people primarily responsible for the war, let's say George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, got off smiling.

The shattering effect of the Abu Ghraib photos came not just because they show the war in a bad light, but because of the jarring levity of those shots.

With their air of dumb frat boy and sorority girl high jinks in the midst of chaos and bloodshed, they undermine the idea that the war is a Christian enterprise, waged for noble purposes.

Both Morris and Cheney were at the riot-torn University of Wisconsin/Madison campus in the Vietnam years. One thing Cheney should have learned is that you shouldn't have riots, turmoil and bad behavior by authority figures on camera.

His underlings don't seem to know this. They're like paparazzi cheerfully and recklessly creating their own tabloid scandal. It seems clear that they just didn't think they were doing something offensive to their bosses.

"Standard Operating Procedure"

3 stars

Directed and written by: Errol Morris.

Other: Rated R for torture, graphic nudity, language. 118 minutes. At the Century Centre Cinema, Chicago.